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Last weekend I attended the Good Food festival in Mississauga. I got the chance to visit a friend of mine- Frank Caputo. He is owner and pitmaster of Hank Daddy’s BBQ. I finally got to see his operation his catering trailer and to try all of his BBQ.

It smelled great from the outside as we walked up. It smelled even better when he opened the doors to temp his chicken wings. They were enormous. HUGE massive meaty wings plus butts were cooking. Delicious aromas of BBQ wafted everywhere. Even though we had just finished an excellent brunch (fried chicken waffles, sausage gravy biscuits and more!) at the Stockyards I was already salivating.

Inside the show they were all ready to feed the public. Hank Daddy’s was serving up lots of their famous pulled pork parfaits!! A delicious BBQ meal in a cup. Chock full of pulled pork mashed potatoes and sauce! Thats a whole lot of happiness.

Everywhere we went in the show people were eating BBQ. They were making a whole lot of people happy with their excellent food.

We tried their brisket, pulled pork and all their sauces. Top notch quality and great BBQ flavor!! Loved the sauces and their meat. They are very diverse and cover all regions of tastes. Original BBQ, Carolina Mustard BBQ, Hickory BBQ, Vinegar BBQ and they also have their original rub as well. I am uber impressed by how well balanced they all are. I am really looking forward to playing with his rub on some upcoming projects. All their items are available online.

Inspired by Adam Richman of Man vs Food , Hank Daddy has developed his own FireWing Challenge using his own Original Barbecue Sauce and some of the hottest peppers on earth. cChallengers must finish 15 FireWings in 15 minutes or less. If FireWings are eaten in less than 15 minutes, they must wait out the full 15 minutes with nothing to drink or wipe. Additional rules apply, and challengers must sign a waiver.

Successful challengers win a lifetime of bragging rights, a t-shirt a Survivor Certificate and are pictured here, on our Wall of Fame.

We had a great time with Frank and his family and I completely understand why they are so popular wherever they go. Good Food Great people and excellent BBQ

Made a visit to Henry’s Smokehouse with a few friends while I was attending the NBBQA. This place has a great vibe to it. Great interior decor!

From their website:

What’s the secret about the best BBQ in town?

We used the best ingredients, the leanest butt in town. Our BBQ is cooked in the old fashioned Southern tradition. We place top choice meats in open BBQ pits with hickory logs and cook them to perfection at low temperatures. Henry’s cooks its pork butts for 12 hours and its ribs for over 8 hours.

If you have ever had meat cooked long and slow, and experienced the fall-off-the-bone tenderness and the distinctive hickory flavor, you begin to understand, why Henry’s Barbeque is becoming legendary.

The staff are all super warm and friendly. Great people who were smiles from ear to ear and fun to talk with.

Their menu has a lot of options and one of those items is their BBQ hash. This was something I have never had before. I love a good hash full of corned beef, taters and onions. Did I ever get an education. Hash in the South is a whole lot different than Hash in the North. Oh my good gracious. I ordered the hash & rice.

Let me tell you what arrived on our plate resembled something that … well… to put it bluntly the cat might have thrown up. I wish there was another way to put it. There isn’t anything pretty about it at all. I did notice however that there were many other folks who were enjoying it.

As I tried some of it I knew instantly that this was just not for me. I am more than willing to try anything once. For me I won’t say it was bad just really different (some very sour notes, mushy texture, indistinguishable meat). TO those folks enjoying it all the best to you but I think I’ll pass in the future. Just not my cup of tea.

We ordered a couple of sample plates from the restaurant.

I really liked their sweet potatoes and I enjoyed the pork with their spicy brown sauce. I ended up purchasing a couple of bottles before leaving for the next place. It was a great balance of sweet, spice and mustard.

After we had eaten we had an opportunity to meet some of their fun staff. Billy the buttmeister can be seen above prepping the pork for the day. Bo the butt chopper was funny as heck as we talked in the back. Outside we got to speak with Tiger their pitmaster that has been with them for the last 20 years.

They use strictly hickory wood for their BBQ’s. They also set up quite a lovely outdoor picnic for the folks on the NBBQA bus tour. Southern hospitality all around!

It was a really interesting place to go and I am glad I got to try BBQ that was completely different than anything I had experienced before. The people that work there really care about their food. I really believe that even though you may not like somebody’s BBQ you can certainly appreciate the time they take to make it the care and concern they put into it. Its all about learning more about the different styles of #BBQ all over North America. Glad we stopped in for sure.

*******Please note the WIFI in our SC hotel was horrible. Could not update the blog. My apologies for the delays in posting. Additionally in the upcoming weeks I will be changing servers. Thanks for your patience.****************

I have been meaning to get to Beast for a while now. Just never enough to time….. I had heard from a few friends in TO that the food was really good . This past weekend I finally got to try some items. Once again Angie Quaale from Well Seasoned accompanied me.

We stopped in for a glass of wine and a few appetizers before we headed out for a late dinner at Parts & Labour

The building is really charming and with lovely plastered walls, planked flooring and cozy seating.More like you are going to someones home for dinner than a restaurant. Its just a really nice place to eat and the chandeliers are gorgeous but not so pretentious you would feel uncomfortable coming in more casual clothing.

We decided on our wine and then moved on to selecting some appetizers to share –

Cassouletduck confit, chorizo sausage, poached duck egg

The beautiful succulent pieces of duck, the to-die-for chorizo, beans that held their shape yet yielded to a bite… and a perfectly poached duck egg made this dish elegant, rustic and hearty all at once. The only criticism I could make was it was just a bit heavily seasoned with salt for our tastes… That note aside this is a dish you want to delve into- curling up beside a fireplace with it……. Like your favorite cardigan or sweater you want to just keep going back to it.

beast charcuterie

I love cured meats. I love the smoky overtones the different textures and tastes a good charcuterie platter should come with. I am spoiled so many of my friends on the BBQ circuit cure their own meats and have shared their bounty with us. Going to restaurants lately I have been very disappointed with some of the charcuterie I have had, until this arrived:

I would also like to note they make the parker house rolls and mini baguettes with red bran (I could eat a dozen of these they are soo yummy and the texture ROCKS) in house and they are just perfect accompaniments to this dish.

lamb ribscarolina bbq sauce & hushpuppies

So here is the hard part. I don’t like lamb in any form at all. I have had countless chefs and BBQ cooks and friends have me try their lamb in every which way possible. I still don’t like it. Until now.

Lamb ribs are something I have never had before. These were succulent and properly cooked. The outside crust was incredible. The sauce very lightly applied. I wish I had the rub recipe. The meats texture and flavor was incredible. Different than any other lamb I have ever had. The fatty layer underneath is simply indulgent very rich….. Delicious. ….I was shocked by how much I enjoyed them. The coleslaw was vinegary and crisp & did a great of balancing the fattiness of the ribs.

Last but not least the hushpuppies. I have such a fondness for hushpuppies. I am an absolute hush puppy lovin’ lady- These were little balls of pure happiness. I could eat them by the bucketload . The crunchy exterior is in beautiful contrast to the fluffy light interior. They were awesome.. Hushpuppies are a Southern thing that I hope catches on a lot more in Ontario.

I am really looking forward to another visit to Beast to have not just appetizers but an entire meal… The service was incredibly friendly warm and hospitable. Scott and Rachelle Vivian truly have something to be incredibly proud of with this restaurant.

This past weekend we had two fun filled classes back to back. First up was our turkey class. We made an assortment of turkeys from savory Traditional to some jerked turkey. Turkey has to be one of the best meats as a canvas for your own personal flavor preferences. I really do believe people should eat more turkey. Its economical easy to grill or BBQ and extremely versatile.

The Brisket class covered really different briskets and textures as well as seasonings for home and at competition. The same for our pulled pork class and out rib class. Lots of fun!

Much thanks to our students from the last 4 classes we have held. They were great people that were so much fun to be with.

All of the pictures are from a really lovely lady and friend of mine Sherri Canjar. She is a very accomplished writer, hunter and forager. Her website is The Foraging Gourmet

Wow. Got to check these out at the America Royal BBQ Competition and these pits are so cool to look at and the folks that make them take time to really listen to their customers needs and wants. They also have had some great success on the BBQ competition trail most recently:

1st Place Ribs out of 499 Teams at the 2010 American Royal BBQ Open Competition–Cooked on a Pitmaker! Congratulations to the What-Ever Cooking team out of Houston, Texas for their win at this national level BBQ Contest!

We paint every frame and box, and BBQ Vault with marine grade epoxy primer to give it extreme durability and corrosion resistance before shooting it with the polyurethane auto enamel for the beautiful colors that you see.

The second trailer is two tone yellow/black with a solid stainless steel 48” Grill-Meister and solid stainless steel Sniper Smoker that we did for a local corporation out of Austin, TX. It shows that we can basically make any of our Pits out of solid stainless steel by request.

The Interceptor:

The Interceptor is painted a metallic light blue and made to look a little like a Houston Police Car, in honor of one of our cooking teammates who is a Houston Police Officer. We take this trailer to most of our Pitmaker Houston Texans Texans Tailgate Parties. It has a functioning Police light bar, LED Underlighting, and a very loud authentic siren that we blare when the Houston Texans score!

So the family all 5 of us packed into the truck and cargo trailer with enough equipment and stuff for 3 competitions and we hit the road to Kansas City Missouri. We had the privilege of competing in both the invitational and the open portions of the contests.

We decided due to our little ones to do a large portion of the first leg of the drive at night. We made incredible time and arrived in Kansas about 6 hours ahead of our schedule….

The trip was really uneventful. We even breezed through customs. a first for us for the entire year. We usually allocate at least an hour or so to get through since we always seem to be getting inspected. We never have anything thats contraband but Homeland Security does their job faithfully. We did however get to have a really good donut on the road from a place called Casey’s General Store a chain of convenience stores that carries really darn good donuts. (* I have my BBQ BFF Angie Quaale to thank for my new obsession with donuts she can smell out a good donut from 100 miles away)
We had one issue on the way that caused us considerable pain. Our 6 year old daughter Ella is a Vegetarian with exceptions. Notable she loves bacon and ribs and then all things vegetable. We had picked up a 2 lb bag of green beans.
She decided to eat the entire bag. Lets just say the windows were down for many miles after her indulgence. Ack. Stinky!

One of the best parts of this trip was heading to our good friends Andy and Kim’s house from Smoke on Wheels. Our kids like hanging out with their kids and staying at their house was a whole lotta fun. Additionally Neil Big Mista Strawder and Shelly Hunt from Desperados BBQ were also hanging at their house. Just saying but a few adult beverages may have been consumed prior to this video.

Andy knows where to get everything you would ever need in the Kansas City area and arriving ahead of schedule we got to drop the trailer off early on Wednesday. Driving in was a thrill and sheesh is this place ever big. The you tube videos I had seen of it in the past in no way give you the magnitude of the location. It is awe inspiring. My backing up the trailer skills are poor on a good day so I can’t imagine having to do it in a field of other trailers already crammed in. Andy ended up backing it in anyways.

I also got a tour around the facility by Andy who has been many times before. Cool to see a lot of the artwork and attractive posters.

Then we were off to a really cool store Ambrosi Brothers Cutlery. I left my knives to be sharpened and picked up another knife, case and covers as well.

We could not be all the way into Kansas and Missouri without stopping at the Kansas City BBQ Store and Eating at Oklahoma Joes. Good places both of them and conveniently for us side by side.

Oklahoma Joes had great food and a sammie called a Z Man Sandwich. Just abut everything was great but we found the pork a bit dry. We were there after the lunch rush though.
On another evening we attended a Pre Royal Party at Knuckleheads. It was once heck of an adventure to get to this place. Its is literally out in the middle of an industrial park directly next to a set of train tracks and one of the best places I have ever been to listen to some awesome music.
The musical guest for the evening was Tab Benoit. He rocked the house and everyone was up dancing carousing and having a great time. Many pops were consumed and we had a blast with many BBQ Brethren, the Smokin Scotsmen’ , Shelley Hunt from Desperados, the British BBQ team, Karen Walker, my BBQ BFF Angie & Dennis Quaale, and their fab kids Andrew and Kim and a bunch of other people. Here is a video I took the sound bites royally wish my BB had better video capability.

So much excitement and we had not even begun the competition yet. I loved coming in early!!
After Knuckleheads we headed back to Kim and Andy’s house. Andy helped me pick out the ribs from the selection I had that I would use for the next two competitions. I made a decision to use St. Louis spares for both competitions. It had been a while (with the exception of BBQ Pitmasters) since I had used them in competition. Then we all headed to bed and then got up early to head to the site.
Setting up was easy and we had the pleasure to have very nice neighbors on either side of us. #709 three Little Kettles (who provided our kids with an entire play table full of coloring books stickers and more!! they were incredibly kind!) and #705 Pop’s Blazin Smokers (they did gator on the Traeger!!)
I got everything prepped for the Invitational and we went and did some visiting. This was the hardest contest I have ever had to concentrate at. There are so many people you would like to get around to see and visit with and its always a race against the clock to get back in time.
One of our neighbors behind us was Mike & Debbie Davis from Lotta Bull. I tried shigging (at least I admit it) from him but he was too far away. Darn.

Another one of the highlights for me was getting to see my dear friends Roni & Kelly Wertz, Joey McManus, and Chris Jones. We missed Dave Raymond though in our Royal Experience.
So many great people to see……

I took a video walking around a bit.

I even went over to the dark side one night accompanied by a really big strong Texan and a guy from Illinois that can run really fast if needed
Those people on the dark side are certifiably insane. You could not pay me to BBQ on that side. Too many parties people throwing up and a whole lot of debauchery. Not my cup of tea really.
Since we had the kids with us we were really protective of our site space. Noting some previous experiences that friends of mine have also had at the Royal we purchased locks for all of our BBQ’s so they and the meats inside didn’t walk off. We also blocked off the front of our site and our neighbors put up fences so people would stop walking through our site. Once secured it made the experience a whole lot more pleasant.

I had some awesome visitors to our site Jim “Rhino” Reincke was just one of them. He is sooo funny. I don’t think there is enough net space to list just how much I appreciated each of our visitors. They were all terrific to see!!

We headed out to one of the pot lucks we had been invited to. Sadly you just can’t get around to everything you get invited to. It was the annual Wertz Royal Prime Rib dinner. It was awesome. We brought a peach cobbler and there was so much food and all of it was delicious.

The day of the Invitational dawned and we received a really nice present a box of donuts from our friends Sean and Adriane Moffat. God Bless them both for their kindness!! Sean also took pictures throughout the weekend. We really appreciate that as well. MMMM Red velvet donuts. Yummy!!

Everything for the invitational ran really smoothly until the rib category. The ribs were soft and mushy and I was ticked to say the least. I had been checking them so often I was shocked to see them go so soft so fast. We turned them in but I knew they would not do well. At least the box looked good. Overall in the other categories of brisket, pork, and chicken I was really happy with what we turned in. The brisket was especially good. We had 3 different briskets and all of them turned out the best we had made for the year.
Doing all of the side dishes wiped me right out. Beans, vegetable, dessert and potatoes. Its a lot of turnins for one cook to handle. We got them in just barely in some cases. Most notable the vegetable category which we had mixed up with the bean turn in time. We ended up grilling a vegetable sidedish and turning it in all within 8 minutes. Holy cow batman that was a close one for sure. Please note in future I will read the rules a little more carefully on turn in times.

Mike Mills stopped by and he hung out in our trailer while I was prepping our dessert, It was great to see him again. Such a legend of BBQ glad to be able to call him and Amy our friends. Didn’t even have time to get a picture with him LOL.

Much thanks to Sean Moffat for help with blocking when we were delivering our dessert there were so many people I don’t think we could have done it without him!!

Sean got a nice picture with him in front of our sign

We cleaned ourselves up grabbed a cocktail and headed to the awards.
It was a thrill to hear our team name called for a 6th place in brisket. It was AWESOME!!!!
I was so excited I thought I was going to pass out……
At the end of the awards ceremony we were thrilled to see the results of the pork 30th, chicken 26th, and brisket 6th for a 35th place overall.
I was horrified and embarrassed though to see out ribs had come 4th from last 127th UGH. I knew they were overcooked. Damn. That sucked so bad.
Congratulations to Smokers Wild on the GC and Tippy Canoe BBQ Crew for their RGC!!! Also congratulations to Smoky D’s BBQ for getting a perfect 180 in their pork.

Also congratulations to Mike & Beth Woziak from Quau who won the Kingsford Cup and a check for $25,000!!

Another cool thing I got to see was my friend Jenny Windsor from Black Cat BBQ getting a 6th in ribs then to see her brand spanking new Sisters In Smoke Tattoo!! That makes three of us that have them now!! To all the other ladies of Q you need to get one as well!!

Then you get to do it all over again. You are tired, the awards ceremony has been the thrill of the day and you need to keep focused and go back to the trailer and complete another competition. Its not easy. I only slept 1.25 hours that night, I was behind in prep, making parsley boxes and taking care of the meats. Anyone who thinks competitive BBQ is not a sport should try to do 2 competitions back to back.

Our kids also enjoyed the fireworks before heading off to bed. Sadly we had broken our tent pole when setting up so we had their bedroom set up in a 10×10 easy up with their inflatable couch and mattress. I think they had probably 10 blankets on top of their sleeping bags. They were sure comfy!

Even though I was behind I went for a little walk to clear my head and visit with a few folks as well. Figured that it would be a good think to relax just a bit before getting serious again.

Dawn came really early and we were all set.

A girl needs a little Canadian Mojo in the AM so crown Royal shots were taken around for anyone who wanted one!

I had to grill some of our Canadian bacon (sweet cured pork loin rolled in cornmeal) we had brought with us to hand out to our friends.
Plus I was in dire need of caffeine so I whipped up a batch of my legendary competition sludge a compilation of 5 shots instant espresso, and super strongly brewed Starbucks coffee with powdered whitener and sugar. It is guaranteed to get your butt in gear.

So much so that when I was walking about Phil from the Brethren made a comment that I could not stay still for a second. It gets you moving for sure….

Back to the grind…..

Brisket was looking great again.

Chicken was looking great! Ribs were good and they had awesome color and texture!

Pork got turned in and we had a whole lot of rejected meat !

Brisket gt turned in and I was really happy with it. Here is the chaos though that was left behind. I had tough time deciding which brisket to turn in.

Sausage came up last and I was sure glad we were done. I can’t remember ever entering a sausage category before so I just made a fatty of some sausage I liked to eat and hoped for the best.

Once again it was time for the awards and we were wiped and excited all at the same time. My friends the Belly Brothers furnished me with a new favorite cocktail courtesy of team Jamaica its a combination of Appleton Estates Rum and Coconut water. Yummy stuff.

I loaded up my pockets with my good luck charms, an acorn from my daughter Ella, a poker chip with the Pellet Envy logo on it, a rubber chicken and a pig flash light. I was also wearing a cancer awareness Angel Ribbon Pin from Flower of the Flames on behalf of Karen Putnam.

Then we were all off to the awards again- this time over 500 teams were in attendance (participating teams 490)

*My BBQ BFF Angie Quaale from Completely Q-less at the awards

It was again a thrill to hear our name called this time though it was for a 12th place in ribs. I had tears in my eyes accepting this one. I was standing behind Mike Davis and was joking with him -I really think he thought I was going to pass out as well.

I have to admit a few emails during the night and early morning got my confidence back up about ribs after the demoralizing finish in the Invitational. The person who sent them is a good friend and Ill keep their name to myself but you know who you are. Thanks for the kind words of encouragement it meant a lot to me. I took your advice, I went back to an old recipe I haven’t used in 2 years with one minor twist I added a new rub. Here is of the rubs I used..

Usually I would not mention what rub I used but this was really special since it was from a dear friend Chris Jones from Colins Creek Barbecue one of my all time favorite BBQ people on the planet.

We joked prior to the awards on how cool it would be if I got a call in ribs. The rub has not been out that long. It really is terrific. You all need to try it.

The awards ceremony was coming to a close and hearing friends names get calls was incredible. We also got a 6th place call in Potatoes. That cracked me right up..I had no idea what to do for the potato category. Our friends Kim and Andy were heading to a difference potluck from the night before and were making their dish Ho De Ho potatoes. Since they were not entering any of the sidedish categories I asked if I could use their recipe. I entered it thinking it was a good dish that everyone like to eat at potlucks. It worked LOL

When it came time for the overall standings I was busy chatting up with our friends. Then the shock of a lifetime came Diva Q came in 10th overall. Oh my flip. I think I blanked out for a minute. What a cool thing to happen.

The awards continued on and 3rd place went to Pelletheads.com

RGC went to Swine Assassins and the GC went to Lotta Bull for the 4th time!!!

I came away from the Royal with absolutely no prize money at all. I have never been happier….. The trip was expensive for us. It was time consuming exhausting it was a lot of planning and juggling of schedules and at times extremely stressful and fun all at the same time. Seeing our friends and BBQ family plus meeting folks I have only dreamed of meeting plus being with our own family was without a doubt one of the highlights of my BBQ career. I can never thank my friends and family enough for their support their love and unending belief in my obsession that is BBQ. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I can’t wait for next year.

Figuring out what you need ahead of time and what tips and tricks you can use are a great time saver. Setting up your site is an important part of the whole process. Each of these sites has helped me a lot.

Big Chris fathers day special folks.. Two full racks, large fries, and a large caesar salad for $35.00.. Dont make dad cook on his day, take it home and tell him that YOU MADE IT..

If I wasn’t already booked for a competition I would be going to this next weekend. Rob “Rub” Bagby is a top notch competitor and an all around really great guy with a proven track record for getting terrific results!!

I have heard many extol the virtues of this class after taking it. I sure wish I could have made it down for his excellent BBQ Cooking Class.

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